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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28804512">Ghoul, err, Gecko Crazy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/takatakataka/pseuds/takatakataka'>takatakataka</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fallout: New Vegas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Like, Short One Shot, idk how unlikely it is that geckos can hold things with their hands but might as well cover my bases, mild crack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:00:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,563</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28804512</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/takatakataka/pseuds/takatakataka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Courier Six takes a break from the preparations of Honest Hearts and makes some new friends along the way.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ghoul, err, Gecko Crazy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm currently on another New Vegas playthrough, shocking I know, and despite my deep dislike of Honest Hearts I do like the friendly little Geckos. They make me very happy when I see them. So I wrote a fic about Riley playing with them, this is canon.</p>
<p>You get bonus points if you Identify Riley's native language without google!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Doc’ Riley, or Courier Six as everyone seemed insistent on calling her, had been exploring the many caves dotting the stretch of Canyon that The Sorrows had made their home for several hours when it happened. Waking Cloud, bless her heart, had repeatedly attempted to coax the wayward delivery girl into letting her give her a more guided tour of the river valley. It would have saved them not only a great deal of time but also would have allowed her to steer the terminally curious outsider away from the Father's caves she seemed so obsessed with exploring. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But, “No,” Had been Riley's answer. “Don’t get the same experience on a tour as you do on your own.” She had explained in her strange way of speaking. She didn’t sound like Joshua or Daniel, or any other Outsiders for that matter, when she spoke the lords language. She would roll the r in her name and in any other word that included the letter. Her v’s often sounded like w’s and her w’s sounded like v’s. And most confusing of all for poor Waking Cloud, she would end her sentence in a way that sounded like she was asking a question when she was not, in fact, asking a question.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So, unable to sway her, she continued following the small, strange woman with not quite purple black hair and a comically overstuffed duffel bag of guns as she clambered and scrambled over every square inch of her ancestral home. It was a small miracle to her that the woman didn’t pitch over the edge of one of the outcroppings from all the weight on her back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was as she was lost aboard this train of thought that she herself was almost pitched over the side when she walked blindly into an outstretched hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley had gone rigid, eyes searching and alert, as she reached into the leather holster haphazardly strapped to the thigh of the grey-green form-fitting armor that smelled vaguely of copper and sulfur. The pistol she retrieved wasn’t like the ones that Joshua and the New Caananites wielded, it was smaller and had six holes drilled in a little wheel in its middle to hold the bullets. She stepped out from behind the rock with the gun leveled and ready, but hesitated. Several seconds passed and nothing happened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley tilted her head, confused.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Waking Cloud tilted her head, confused, and peeked around the rock. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What greeted them was a gecko that came up to about her waist in height, it was staring at them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then, it licked its eyes with its tongue. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Waking Cloud laughed.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I see!” She announced, looking back to Riley again. “These are nice Geckos, we raise them for their hides and meats. They are quite friendly.” She explained to the outsider, whose gun dropped to her side.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Friendly?” Riley asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes! Very friendly. We have been keeping their kind for many generations.” Waking Cloud explained.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The pistol in Riley's hand found its way into its holster, and she began to approach the mutated Gecko cautiously. It tilted it’s head slightly, but showed no signs of concern. She raised her right hand to it, fingers curled into her palm, to let it sniff her knuckles. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It studied the appendage for a moment, sniffed it a few times, and then licked it in one long, incredibly drawn out go with its comically large tongue.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley made a noise that could only be described as a squeak toy being crushed to death by an over-excited dog. Despite the fact that the Gecko was not, in fact, a dog, she immediately set to work scratching its head. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>hver er góður drengur?” Riley chirped. Waking Cloud had no idea what she was saying but noted her odd voice sounded far more comfortable in this new tongue than in English. “þú ert!” She added excitedly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Waking Cloud stepped from behind the rock. It was almost comical to her really, she’d never seen someone so excited over Geckos before. She thought she might say as much. “If I had known you would take to them so quickly, I would have offered to show them to you sooner!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley visibly startled, had she forgotten she was there that quickly? She heel turned to face her, hand withdrawing from the Gecko. The Geckos eyes opened, confused. “Þú sérð-” She caught herself, eyebrows furrowing. “Err, I always liked Geckos! Coyotes too. I always wanted to pet one of them but they don’t normally like it if you get too close.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Gecko grabbed her hand with one of its own and attempted to guide it back to its head. She squealed again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Þú ert svo klár!” She gave him further pats and worked her way to the back of his head. She reached behind one of his fins and began scritching there. The Geckos eyes closed and slowly began thumping his left leg. Riley giggled and looked to Waking Cloud again. “Stafur! No, wait...Stick! Give me a stick!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Confused but too curious about where this was going to refuse, Waking Cloud obliged. A nearby white log had a weak twig on offer. She snapped the wooden appendage off easily, the sun-bleached wood was very cooperative, and handed it off to the Gecko enthusiast. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The young woman's hand came away from the overgrown Lizard's head again. The Gecko paused, then opened its eyes in confusion. It let out a low dissatisfied grumble and went to reach for her again. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nei.” Riley barked. It hesitated. It studied her again, interested in what the strange new human intended. She crouched down to be eye level with the creature and then showed it her hand. “Hönd,” she said. She touched it’s right hand with her own and repeated, “Hönd.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Gecko stared at its hand a moment before licking its eye. Riley suppressed another giggle before slowly closing her hand. “Loka,” She told it. The creature stared at her as she repeated the action and word several times before doing the same. Apparently satisfied with her new friend's progress, she placed the stick in his hand and spoke. “Loka.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Gecko grasped around the stick with its hand, Riley let go of it, the Gecko did not. It stood there for several seconds, staring at its newfound ability. Finally, it looked back up at her and gradually lifted the stick straight up in the air. It looked more than a little bit like the cover of a Grognak comic.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You know, if Grognak was a 3 foot tall bipedal mutant lizard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley squealed once again and shot to her feet. Before either Waking Cloud or the Gecko itself could react, she scooped the little lizard up under its stocky arms and hoisted it up in the air. She didn’t even notice it drop the stick in the excitement and certainly didn’t seem to care at its obvious distress at being lifted from the safe solid earth. It was a wonder, Waking Cloud thought, how such a tiny almost frail-looking woman could lift such a large animal up effortlessly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The sun was dipping under the canyon rim when Daniel and Joshua finally reached where Waking Cloud had been leading them. She had wandered over to them, alone, roughly half an hour earlier to tell them that the Outsider, the Courier, had gotten terribly distracted and they needed to get her to continue with her objectives. They had agreed emphatically and asked her to lead the way...once they’d finished up some work first of course. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That wasn’t what they had really come up to do, they knew this gentile had been running all over the valley all week for them and couldn’t fault her for a day off. Really, they had come because they wondered what could have possibly tangled the woman up so much as to worry Waking Cloud. She was odd, yes, but not in an abnormal or quirky way. She just didn’t see eye to eye with either of the New Caananites, an impressive feat considering neither of them saw eye to eye either, yet she continued to assist them with a frightening level of focus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So to say they were more than a little bit baffled by the sight of her in the middle of five frolicking Geckos wielding sticks with mischievous intent, speaking to the critters in some foreign tongue neither of the men could understand, would be an understatement. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Daniel cast a bemused glance to Joshua, who merely raised an eyebrow back at him. He called out. “Uhm, Miss Riley? Are you-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She perked up at the sight of them, the first time she’d ever done anything of the sort, and waved. “Halló! I found some friends!” She called back, her strange accent much heavier than usual. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Joshua chuckled quietly. “We can see that. Do these friends have names?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes!” She chirped. Eyes lighting up like an artillery barrage. “This one is Sigríður! And this one is Ragnheiður! And that one over there is-” She continued on like that for some time, listing off more and more names no one else in the canyon would likely be able to pronounce for more Geckos than either man was sure were actually in the camp. But they watched on, amused by the strangers one moment of genuine joy in the entire two weeks she’d been here.  </span>
</p>
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